Analysis of Sonnet 99: When Far-Spent Night
Sir Philip Sidney 1554 (Penshurst, Kent) – 1586 (Zutphen)
When far-spent night persuades each mortal eye,
To whom nor art nor nature granted light,
To lay his then mark-wanting shafts of sight,
Clos'd with their quivers, in sleep's armory;
With windows ope then most my mind doth lie,
Viewing the shape of darkness and delight,
Takes in that sad hue which the inward night
Of his maz'd powers keeps perfect harmony;
But when birds charm, and that sweet air which is
Morn's messenger, with rose enamel'd skies,
Calls each wight to salute the flower of bliss,
In tomb of lids then buried are mine eyes,
Forc'd by their lord, who is asham'd to find
Such light in sense, with such a darken'd mind.
Scheme | ABBC ABBC XDX DEE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011101 1111110101 1111110111 111101100 1101111111 1001110001 1011110101 11110101100 1111011111 1100110101 11110101011 0111110111 1111110111 1101110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 643 |
Words | 116 |
Sentences | 2 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 3, 3 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 124 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 37 sec read
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"Sonnet 99: When Far-Spent Night" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/35341/sonnet-99%3A-when-far-spent-night>.
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